Warfare Guide - Naval Units

The Naval Service in SR2020 contains six classes of ships and submarines which includes (in order) the Submarines, Carriers, Destroyer/Cruisers, Frigates/Corvettes, Patrol/Support and Transport classes.

Combat Naval Units (NUs) are useful for blockading enemy sea-piers or the entrances to enemy bays and harbors. Submarines can be used for coastal surveillance or attacking enemy amphibious forces. Aircraft Carriers (ACCs) can transport your short-range aircraft or stage naval air attacks on enemy territory and shipping. Cruisers, Destroyers and Battleships can carry powerful artillery and AA firepower to enemy coasts and can also counter enemy amphib operations.

Frigates and Corvettes can serve as the advance escorts for larger capital ships and make good scouting and picket ships. Patrol craft can alert you to approaching sea threats to your coasts and oil platforms. Some can also act as missile platforms and thus present a deadly obstacle to attacking enemy NUs.

NUs are unique in the game in that each NU cannot be sub-divided since one NU corresponds to one operational naval vessel. A NU contains no squadrons or battalions. Its strength is represented by the percentage of the vessel that is not damaged.

Naval units have the highest transport capacity in the game since cargo ships can transport thousands of tones of cargo and Units all over the map. Your Transport ships can supply your combat NUs and also transport your land units during amphibious operations.

Supply on water hexes is generated by sea-piers and oil-platforms. The supply effect spreads from these sources along your coast-lines but gradually weakens in proportion to the distance from the source of supply. It is extremely important to keep your NUs supplied with Transport NUs once they depart friendly supplied waters.

Except for the occasional amphibious attack, AIs never use their NUs to their full potential. Many AI NUs, especially submarines are inactive except when attacked. When they do go on patrol the AI's surface NUs wander the map alone and eventually become stranded in mid-ocean when they run out of fuel. Therefore it does not pay to create large anti-ship and ASW forces to combat AI naval power.

In my experience the most serious incidents of naval warfare in SR2020 have consisted of clearing the coasts of large Regions of their naval defenses and clearing the open ocean of pesky stranded enemy NUs that molest my passing transport ships.

As the game proceeds you will rapidly acquire a large, free Navy from the Naval assets of each coastal Region that you conquer.

Combat NUs may come armed with one of two types of naval artillery - direct or indirect. Direct-fire NUs can target individual shore and naval targets with their naval guns. NUs with artillery ranges that exceed 30 km are generally of the indirect-fire type that is largely ineffective against other ships and is useful only against land targets that have low defenses against indirect-damage.

Long-range, direct fire NUs should be researched and fabricated it you intend to conduct accurate shore-bombardment missions against enemy coastal targets.

ASW designated NUs are equipped with sonar to detect submarines and anti-submarine weapons to attack them.

Well into the game when you have good spotting and surveillance, the usual extent of ASW in SR2020 consists of you locating enemy submarines tied up to their sea-piers and destroying them. ASW carriers, submarine screens and ASW hunter-killer groups are seldom necessary.

This SC designation indicates that the NU can beach itself or extend a long ramp onto the shore so that it can unload its land unit passengers without a sea-pier. Non-amphibious land units can be unloaded as well as amphibious ones.

Civilian and Converted (Conv) designs of NUs are common in the ACC and Transport classes. Civilian and converted designs are cheap and can be build quickly since they are generally poorly or un-armed and lack spotting and stealty strengths and defensive armor.

Converted designs consist of civilian hulls converted to military uses, such as when a flight deck is added to a civilian transport ship hull. Converted transport NUs generally are civilian transports armed with small surface and AA weapons.

In RL Landing Craft are troop-transport boats that can discharge troops onto a beach-head and then return to be loaded aboard their large mother-ship.

A few NUs are labeled with this have the term "Landing Craft" in their description, but this only means that the Transport NU is very small and possesses the Landing Craft Special Capacity explained above.

The Submarine class consists of stealthy sub-marine attack units (SUs) that operate under-water. Modern submarines are either Attack types that hunt and kill ships and other submarines, or Ballistic Missile types that are stealthy platforms for launching Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). ICBMs are long range missiles armed with one or more thermo-nuclear warheads.

Early German submarines were designated with a single 'U' that stood for Unterseeboot (undersea boat). Early U.S. subs were designate with an 'S' and then later as "SS" for "Ship, Submersible".

More modern types of sub are designated "SS", "SSK", "SSG", "SSN" or "SSBN", where 'G' represents "Guided Missile", 'N' "Nuclear Powered" and 'B' for "Ballistic Missile".

SR2020 SUs have no capability of surfacing, so they are always stealthy. They can silently patrol your coasts for enemy NUs or scout out the coastlines of your enemies. Subs also make excellent missile platforms that are difficult to spot.

All SUs can utilize their intrinsic attack characteristics (torpedoes) to destroy their targets.

Many SUs are nuclear powered. This extends their patrol range immensely and makes them even more stealthy, since they lack the loud engine noises of diesel-powered subs. When launching a newly-fabricated nuclear sub in SR2020 the Region is charged the cost of the SU's uranium fuel.

SUs cannot capture enemy territory.

SUs can be made even more stealthy by setting their Rules of Engagement to "Stealthy Approach" and Speed and Route = "Cautious".

Many Russian SUs contain AA missiles in their "sails", which allow them to shoot down attacking ASW helicopters.

Strangely the SR2020 game engine has no quantative concept of the height of a unit inside a particular hex. The height or, in the case of SUs, the depth of a unit is determined by the way game's programming interprets the unit's target type. All SUs are immune from land attack not because they are so deep under the water, but because land units are not permitted to attack submerged target types. The U-2 spy AC is a high-air unit except when landed simply because U-2s are high-air target types and are soft land targets when landed.

Map hexes do however have height quantities and these are used to determine the line-of sight between two spotting units. If a unit can spot an enemy unit or if an enemy unit is spotted by other friendly units, and the target is a compatible target type, and the target is within range, then the target unit can be attacked.

This introduces an unusual side-effect in the game where SUs can attack ships and other submarines through land hexes. If your spotting units spot an enemy target within range of your SU, then you submarine can attack it, even if the target is behind a strip of land.

SSNs are nuclear-powered attack submarines or "fast attack" subs are designed to detect and destroy surface ships and other submarines. In RL High-speed SSN subs are sometimes called "fleet submarines" because they are capable of escorting and screening fleets of surface ship. The main characteristics of SSNs is their stealth, spotting ability and attack range.

In SR2020 most SSN units (SSNUs) can carry missiles. This is partially explained by the RL design of the TL 96 U.S. SSN-773 Imp. Los Angeles. This "fast attack" sub launches Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles horizontally from its torpedo tubes, but is also equipped with 12 vertical launch tubes for additional Tomahawks.

Another example of an SSNU is the TL U.S. SSN-21 Seawolf.

SSNUs work the best when used in groups called "wolf-packs". In a pack of SSNUs the pack's spotting ability is equal to the ability of the best spotter in the pack and the pack's attack range is equal to that of the pack member with the longest attack range. An Enemy target can only attack one pack member at a time, which gives the other members the opportunity to move in and attack the target.

Be sure to choose SSNUs with long attack ranges since many Destroyers and Frigates have long range ASW sensors and weaponry.

The one problem with this strategy is that "decoy" pack member always takes damage. It is much better for you sub or subs to attack a target that cannot spot and target them in return.

SSKs are traditional diesel-powered attack submarines. In RL diesel-electric submarines need air to run their diesel engines, and so they carry very large batteries for submerged operation. The need to recharge these batteries from the diesel engines limits the endurance of many of these submarines while submerged and may require them to surface regularly for extended periods, during which they are especially vulnerable to detection and attack.

However the Yuan Class TL 102 Chinese Yuan Class Type 039A is equipped with an indigenously-developed AIP system, which allows the submarine to remain submerged on battery at slow speed for days or even weeks without having to surface to recharge batteries. The tactical flexibility, small size, and inherent stealth of such a system offers conventional diesel-electric submarines a remarkable increase in capability.

The TL 86 British SSK-876 HMCS Victoria in RL were interim designs to quickly produce viable submarines with such advanced features as sound-absorbing acoustic tiles, while stronger nuclear designs were being completed.

SSGs are attack submarines that are platforms for cruise missiles. The first such designs were completed in the 1950s. Several Soviet SSGs have also carried SLBM (sub-launched ballistic missiles).

In 2002 to 2008 the U.S. Navy modified the four oldest Ohio class Trident submarines to SSGN configuration, such as the TL 106 U.S. SSGN-726 Ohio. This was achieved by the installation of vertical launching systems (VLS) in a configuration dubbed "multiple all-up-round canister (MAC)", which equips 22 of the 24 missile tubes, which previously held one large nuclear strategic ballistic missile, with 7 smaller Tomahawk cruise missiles. The 2 remaining tubes are converted to lock out chambers (LOC) to be used by special forces personnel who can be carried on board. This gives each converted sub the capability to carry up to 154 Tomahawk missiles.

Also referred to as "boombers" or FBMSs "Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine". These submarines act as stealthy missile platforms that fire their missiles from under-water. U.S. boomers carry up to 24 missiles in non-reloadable vertical launch tubes.

In RL they are designed to stand off an enemy shore and fire one or more Intercontenental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMS) into sub-orbital space. Once in space the missiles deploy their payloads that consist of Multiple Independent Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs). Each MIRV then re-enters the atmosphere and rains down upon its designated target with a nuclear warhead.

In SR2020 SSBN units, such as the TL 97 U.S. SSBN-743 Louisiana, serve as missile platforms for conventionally or nuclear armed sub-surface-to-surface missiles of many different types. Their missile are reloadable and they can carry up to 68 of them They also have intrinsic surface-attack capabilities derived from their defensive armament - torpedo tubes.

Aircraft carriers (ACC) are huge, expensive floating air-fields that transport, supply, launch and protect naval aircraft of many types. ACC are the most important combat ships in the real-life Navy. Long-decked attack AAC are called CVA's or "fleet carriers". Short-decked carriers are called helicopter carriers or VTOL carriers.

Nuclear-powered ACCs are generally long-decked carriers and are designated as "CVN"s. American ACCs are all nuclear-powered and out-class those of other nations in size, capacity and propulsion systems, so they are often referred to as "super-carriers".

These ships possess a "Uranium" fuel cost in addition to their usual weight in Military goods. However, the Region that constructs a nuclear-powered ship does not require a stockpile of the Uranium resource. Instead, when the newly fabricated super-carrier is launched the Region is charged the price of the required Uranium fuel from its treasury.

Many of the newer ACCs are potent AA platforms with very high close-air attack specs. Most CVAs also have mid-air attack values.

Some ACC types are dedicated to the ASW role and embark mostly ASW-capable AC and helos.

ACC must re-supply in the supplied waters of friendly Regions. Since ACCs in SR2020 are considered to be transport ships, they cannot be re-supplied from other transport/supply ships. Neither can an ACC's aircraft reload their missiles from an ACC's supplies. These missiles must be obtained from supplied waters as well.

Previously aircraft Units (ACUs) were only loosely associated to the ACCs upon which they were embarked.

ACCs with aircraft Units embarked were awkward to move, since when the player selected the hex in which the ACC was located, its AC would be selected as well. So when a move order was issued to the ACC, the ACUs would fly off the ACC and zoom towards the "Move To" hex, abandoning the ACC.

This system was improved by in this update so that when performing a "rubber-band" selection that includes a loaded ACC, the embarked ACUs are not selected.

Naval units and Naval Air power are inter-dependent. All ACCs can carry most types of VTOL aircraft including most helicopters, however long-deck designated naval aircraft can only utilize long-decked ACCs.

American naval attack aircraft carry heavier weapons loads than those of many other countries and so U.S. aircraft rely upon powerful steam catapults to launch them at high take-off velocities. Many other country's lighter naval aircraft can be launched from carriers with the aid of an up-swept "ski-jump" ramp at the end of the flight-deck.

Since ASW plays such a small role in SR2020, in relation to Naval Air it is most important that you fabricate sufficient carrier aircraft to arm your aircraft carriers.

Naval aircraft at sea can only replenish their missile loads from friendly supplied sea hexes, and then only when landed on their ACCs. Friendly terrestrial air-fields are also a viable alternative.

Long-deck carriers are the only type of carriers capable of transporting SR2020 long-deck naval aircraft.

In RL long-decked carriers use either catapults or upwards-swept "ski jump" ramps to boost aircraft into flight. Many U.S. naval ACUs are too heavy to use ski-jumps and so must be flung into the air by steam-powered catapults.

Long-decked carriers can embark more than 2 squadrons of naval air units. The largest super-carrier - the Tl 98 CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford can accommidate 5 ACUs.

Super-carriers are heavily armed with close and mid-air AA weaponry and occasionally it is effective to have one or more of them accompany your naval strike groups for no other reason than to supply AA cover.

Converted ACCs are large civilian transport ships that have been converted into ACCs by building a flat flight-deck atop it. These ships may store their aircraft by lashing them to the flight deck or may be equipped with an elevator and a hanger deck beneath the flight deck.

This class of NUs consists of Destroyers, Cruisers and Battleships. These fast versatile combatants can fight in all four domains: air, land, sea and sub-surface.

All but the very oldest F/C class NUs are missile capable which greatly multiplies their anti-ship effectiveness.

Most D/C NUs have long combat times in the range of 80-660 hours, due to their large below-deck stores of ammunition.

D/C units also have excellent anti-air values and many of them can cope with close, mid and high air threats. With research technologies that extend their AA range it is possible to decimate the aircraft of an enemy Region with Destroyers and Cruisers stationed off of their shores.

Since enemy NUs present such a hollow naval threat, the major use for these NUs is often for use as off-shore naval artillery - the shore-bombardment role.

The problem is that many of the longest-range D/C class NUs are indirect, ballistic -fire Units rather than direct-fire. All Units with surface attack ranges greater than 29 km are indirect-fire units.

This means that if you desire to soften-up or destroy enemy targets near their coast, these indirect-fire unit's naval gun-fire becomes distributed to all of the enemy units/structures in the target hex, not just on the target tank or air-base.

Another disadvantage of major indirect-fire ships is when they encounter smaller direct-fire enemy vessels. The smaller combatants are able to concentrate their smaller firepower upon the large opponent while the larger ship cannot concentrate its larger firepower upon a single small target.

Direct-fire Units can be massed and their fire concentrated on one coastal target. This is why if you intend to utilize shore-bombardment tactics then it is important to identify and fabricate as many high-tech, long-range direct-fire naval designs as possible. As was mentioned before, certain research technologies extend the inherent ranges of many weapons in the game, so you may be able to extend the 29 km range of your direct-fire naval guns to reach more distant targets.

Modding is very helpful in this respect since with modding you can re-engineer the original SR2020 long-range indirect-fire, units into direct-fire short-bombardment NUs.

Never-the-less when D/C class NUs are performing shore-bombardment it is very important to keep them supplied with ammunition by deploying an ample number of supply ships. As cargo-capable types, ACCs can also perform this role.

D/C class vessels can exhibit a strange behavior when they run out of supplies (ammunition). If they still have a fuel supply, unsupplied D/C units will leave the gun-line and return to their "home-port".

As it turns out, these units consider their home port to be either the sea-pier hex at which they were fabricated or the sea-pier where they were last held in reserve.

If they run low on ammunition on the gun-line these NUs will head for home, even if home is across and ocean. If they encounter supplied waters on the way they will stop and re-supply, but they will not return to duty on the gun-line.

Destroyers (DDs) are high-speed combat NUs with both surface, air and sub-surface attack capabilities and in general they excel at all three roles.

The TL 96 U.S. DDG-71 Arleigh Burke has an incredible combat time of 666 hours. It can attack submarine targets at 100 km and mid-air targets at 167 km due to her AEGIS/SM-3 AA missile systems.

The TL 107 U.S. DDG-1000 Zumwalt has an indirect-fire range of 85 km and can attack high-air targets.

The high-tech DDs like the TL 117 U.S. DD-112 Connery have long indirect-fire surface ranges and heavy hitting power, but have short combat times. They can also detect submarine contacts as far as 78 km away using its onboard ASW helo.

A typical example high-tech direct-fire DDs is the hard-hitting TL 156 U.S. DDG-1042 Watkins with a combat time of 80 hours and a surface range of 29 km.

Cruisers (CGs) are larger and more heavily armed than Destroyers and often serve as the flag-ship for non-carrier naval groups. Many types of Cruiser (CGNs) are nuclear-powered and have very long movement ranges.

All types of Cruisers possess missile capability. Cruisers are good choices for direct-fire shore-bombardment.

Only the TL 115 U.S. CG-90 Potomac type has long-range indirect-fire guns and high-air attack capability.

Frigates are primarily small un-armored escort vessels, designed to screen merchant convoy formations. Corvettes are smaller and lighter than frigates and are generally used for coastal ASW patrol and to escort slow merchant vessels. Both types possess small naval guns as well as AA and ASW armament.

Many designs are equipped with flight desks (FFH) and hangers for small dedicated ASW helos.

The modern definition of "frigate" was adopted during World War II by the Royal Navy to describe a new type of anti-submarine escort vessel that was larger than a corvette, but smaller than a destroyer. The frigate was introduced to remedy some of the shortcomings inherent in the corvette design: limited armament, a hull form not suited to open-ocean work, a single shaft which limited speed and maneuverability, and a lack of range.

In 1975 the U.S. Navy reclassified its slow Destroyer-Escorts (DE), such as the TL 65 U.S. DE-1052 Knox, as Frigates. Despite the fact that they were too slow to escort fast fleet formations, these convoy escort vessels were designated as "fast frigates" (FFs). Missile frigates are designated as "FFG"s, such as the TL 74 U.S. FFG-7 Oliver H. Perry.

Corvettes are larger than patrol or gun-boats boats, but smaller and slower than Frigates. A modern example is the TL 107 German F-260 Braunschweig (Type 130). Another term for "corvette" is "light frigate", such as the helo-equipped TL 93 Israeli FFL-501 Eilat.

The most recent type of light frigate is the U.S. Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). Littoral refers to areas adjoining coastal waters.

The U.S. Navy considers the LCS particularly effective in defeating asymmetric threats in the littorals, including mine warfare, engaging quiet diesel submarines and defeating fast surface craft. The vessel will also introduce dramatic improvements in support of manned and unmanned special operations, relying on its spacious integrated flight deck and capability to launch and recover manned or unmanned watercraft such naval commando fast boats.

LCS's are fitted with one of three changeable "mission packages" (MPs), and can be configured to deploy with any one of three MP modules: the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) module; mine countermeasures (MCM) module and surface warfare (SUW) module.

Patrol Craft (PC) NUs are small, light NUs used for patrol and ASW work. They have good spotting values and most can can attack enemy surface targets. Some are equipped with SONAR and can also attack sub-surface targets. Most have at least some AA attack value, some as high as 130.

Some PCs such as the TL 102 Japanese PG-825 Hayabusaare missile-capable (PTG, PCG) which makes them potent anti-ship units. Their missile radars also give these units superior spotting ranges.

Tl 71 U.S. PHM-1 Pegasus was a hydro-foil patrol gunboat boat with a speed of 48 knots.

The Support types consist mainly of five types of Minesweepers. There are no mines in SR2020 so these units are useless.

All Transport class NUs have cargo capacity and this cargo can be replaced with transporting land units. Even AE and civilian cargo ships can load land units as passengers. Amphibious NUs do not require sea-piers to unload their passenger units. See Amphibious Assaults.

Transport NUs and ACCs hold a huge amount of supplies (cargo) and thus take a very long time to re-load. Therefore it is best to keep your large supply ships and oil-tankers NUs deployed and ready inside supplied waters so that when you need them they will be full of supplies.

Amphibious naval units (ANUs) possess the "Landing Craft" Special Capabilities icon. Some are well armed and have good defensive values. They are also known as "gators" - after the amphibious alligator. Only the LCC-Command Ship can capture enemy territory.

ANUs can either partially beach themselves or extend long ramps onto the shore and so are capable of landing embarked passenger units on a beachhead without the presence of a sea-pier. Any land unit unit and be put ashore - even non-amphibious land units. None of the ANUs can carry aircraft, not even helos.

U.S. ANUs are designated with the first letter 'L'. The following are some amphib ANU designations:

LC - Landing Craft

LCT - Landing Craft, Tank (technically a boat, since in RL it can be taken aboard a ship)

LCU - Landing Craft, Utility (also a boat)

LSU - Landing Ship, Utility

LPH - Amphibious Assault Ship

LPD - Amphibious Transport, Dock

LSD - Landing Ship, Dock

LST - Landing Ship, Tank

LSM - Landing Ship, Medium

LCC - Command Ship

In RL the TL 64 U.S. LPD 4 Austin design combines the functions of three different classes of ships; the landing ship (LSD), the tank landing ship (LST), and the attack cargo ship (LKA). The Amphibious Transport, Dock, in RL is used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies by embarked landing craft or amphibious vehicles augmented by helicopters in amphibious assaults.

Regardless of their letter designation, all SR2020 Amphib units perform the same job - land units and supplies onto a beachhead.

All transport types can transport carge and so are also supply ships. When they embark passenger units for transport, a proportional amount of this supply cargo is forced out of the Transport.

Supply ships can and do off-load their cargo (supplies) to other nearby non-transport units, within a radius of one hex around the hex that contains the supply ship. They cannot transfer supplies to aircraft carriers. These supplies appear on the client NU in the form of both fuel and supplies (ammunition).

Supply ships and ACCs can only replenish their supplies from friendly supplied water hexes. They contain sometimes thousands of tones of cargo and this takes a long time to completely fill the Transport unit - sometimes days or weeks. Therefore it is wise to keep your transports deployed in supplied waters so that they will be full of supplies when they are needed.

Supply and support ships are usually designated by the first letter 'A' for "Auxiliary". Some U.S. auxiliery designations are:

AP - Transport (Personnel)

AS - Submarine Tender

AE - Ammunition Ship (Explosives)

AO - Oiler (Oil Tanker)

AOR - Replenishment Oiler

AOE - Fast Combat Support Ship

AOG - Gasoline Tanker

AOT - Transport Oiler

AKE - Dry Cargo Ship

AFS - Combat Stores Ship

Regardless of their letter designation, all SR2020 auxiliery designated units perform the same job - transporting units and supplies. There are no "Engineer" NUs that will speed the repair of a NU or speed the construction of a sea-pier or oil platform.

All NUs require fuel to move. NUs refuel either from friendly supplied sea hexes or from Transport class NUs. In SR2020 cargo is the same as fuel. When a Transport NU comes within one hex of another non-Transport NU, supplies will be transferred to the non-transport unit in the form of BOTH fuel and supplies (ammunition).

Since cargo is loaded the same as fuel, there are no dedicated naval tankers in the game - every Transport class NU is also a tanker.

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